


i would come back a thousand times

by se_lamore



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Slow Burn, basically cyrus returns to shadyside and tj spent the whole time he was gone pining over him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-18 02:08:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17572280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/se_lamore/pseuds/se_lamore
Summary: TJ spotted a middle-aged woman with a younger looking, brown haired boy standing next to her. A brown haired boy who looked very, very familiar, with his thick eyebrows, and his sweet smile, and the little mole adorning his cheek. A brown haired boy who had carried TJ’s heart across the world with him, and who had now brought it back so that it was right next door.Holy fuck, TJ thought.Cyrus.AU -  Cyrus left Shadyside years ago, but TJ's feelings for him never faded. When he returns, he and TJ become neighbors - and maybe, eventually, something more.





	1. dandelion wine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: lots of swearing
> 
> the name of this chapter is based on a song by Gregory Alan Isakov. because angst. i recommend listening to it while you read!
> 
> this is also my first time writing a fic for the AM fandom, so i'm very sorry if it sucks lol

“Alright, practice is over. You can head home. Remember, the game tomorrow is here at five PM. Arrive at least thirty minutes early for warm ups!”

The members of the boys’ basketball team ambled to the bleachers as the coach continued shouting reminders at them, grabbing their water bottles and their backpacks. TJ trailed behind them, his head down. Practice that day had been unsuccessful. He lagged behind the other boys during warm-ups, and missed nearly every basket he shot. But at this point, it wasn’t out of the ordinary. He just hoped the coach wouldn’t call him out on it.

“Kippen!”

Great.

He dragged his feet toward his coach, ready to hear the same lecture that had given to him the last couple of practices.

“Kippen, I don’t know what is going on with you, but you seriously need to sort it out.”

“I know, Coach. Sorry," TJ mumbled, still looking at the ground. He silently prayed for this moment to be over.

Instead the coach sighed, indicating that their conversation was far from its conclusion. “TJ, you’ve been acting off ever since you made it onto the team. Remember that I put you on varsity this year for a reason. I really believe that you have the potential. You just need to find your old spark.”

“I’ll try,” TJ responded halfheartedly. Unsurprisingly, the coach hadn’t said anything he didn’t know already. He had lost his spark for basketball years ago, and there was no sign of its return.

“Alright, kid.” The coach clapped his back; it was surprisingly painful, and TJ had to hide his grimace. “See you tomorrow. And bring your A game; I don’t want to have to bench you again!”

TJ joined in the coach’s laughter, but it sounded strangled. He didn’t exactly find jokes about his failures in basketball to be hilarious.

As his coach left the gym, TJ lingered a bit, his eyes still gazing down at the linoleum floor. Finally, he looked up to see the basketball hoop looming over him, almost like it was taunting him. I dare you, it seemed to whisper. I dare you.

TJ grabbed the basketball, dribbling a bit before taking a shot. 

The ball flew into the air and bounced off the rim. He had missed.

“Of course,” he muttered to himself, sighing and leaving the room.

Amber was waiting for him on the benches near the school entrance. She was writing something in a notebook and didn’t seem to notice him until he was standing directly in front of her. He wasn’t too offended, though; he was used to being invisible.

Amber finally saw him and gathered her things so that they could walk to TJ’s car together. They said nothing as they exited the school and, to be honest, TJ didn’t mind the silence.

“Have you heard?” Amber piped up out of nowhere.

So much for peace and quiet.

“Jesus Christ, Amber, you always start talking to me as if we were in the middle of a conversation,” TJ said, exasperated. 

Amber simply looked at him expectantly. 

He sighed. “Fine, I’ll bite. What’s the news?”

“We're going to have a new neighbor,” she responded excitedly. 

He raised an eyebrow. “Which ones moved out?”

“The really weird ones with the red brick house. Remember, they had the super annoying dog that was constantly barking and running away?”

“Oh, thank God,” TJ murmured. “Heard anything about who it is?”

“Nope, Mom just texted me that a moving truck arrived today. Hopefully this time, it’s a normal family. I’m tired of keeping up with our bizarre neighbors.”

“Any reason why Mom told you and not me?” TJ said, his voice slightly tinged with annoyance. 

Amber laughed and bumped his shoulder. “Probably because you wouldn’t care, since, you know, you’ve been a literal recluse for the past two years.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t test me. I’m giving you free rides home.”

“I’m your sister. It’s part of the contract.”

They finally reached the car. TJ sighed, unlocking it and putting his bag in the backseat. This was always the worst part of the day : going home. Even though his family was always around, the feeling of isolation was crippling. When his mom greeted him at the door he would put on his fake smile and tell her how great his day at school was when in reality, his only friend was his sister and the only subject he wasn’t practically failing was PE. 

It used to be different. He used to have lots of friends, was one of the best basketball players in the grade, and had the best person he had ever known by his side. 

Cyrus.

TJ hated the way he still thought about him. After graduating eighth grade, Cyrus left Shadyside to study abroad in Israel. Apparently, he loved it so much that he decided to stay. TJ didn’t know for sure, though. With the different time zones and the extremely busy schedules that they both had, their communication had fizzled. Well, "fizzled" was an understatement. They hadn’t spoken in years. 

And the worst part of it all? TJ had always been deeply, pathetically in love with him.

No one knew, of course. No one even knew he liked boys. He was working through it, though, at the time. He had been getting closer with Cyrus, building up the courage to come out to him and maybe even tell him how he felt. But then Cyrus left, and took TJ’s bursting heart with him.

Looking back, it was stupid. Cyrus would have never felt the same way. He was a smart, mature, kind boy with a bright future. And TJ was a mediocre basketball player who sucked at school and who spent most of his life treating people like shit. And besides, what was he going to come out as? He had no idea how to label his sexuality. All he knew was that he was in love with Cyrus, and that Cyrus’ leaving somehow took away his ability to feel something for anybody else.

After Cyrus left, TJ had no one. He had dropped all his old friends because Cyrus made him realize how shitty they were, and his only companions had become Jonah and the members of the GHC. However, once Cyrus was gone, they drifted apart from him. After all, Cyrus was the only thing they had in common. And it wasn’t like they liked him much anyway. He had been awful to all of them, and even though he apologized, it made sense that they didn’t want to continue being his friend without Cyrus around to make things less awkward.

So TJ had been spending high school with no friends - except his sister, if that even counted. He also had awful grades, but he didn’t bother to get help. His lack of motivation unfortunately carried over to his basketball playing, and he had barely made it onto the varsity team his junior year. 

He missed Cyrus, but in retrospect, he could have tried harder to keep in contact with him. At this point, however, he was far too ashamed, because Cyrus’ leaving quite literally broke him. And he doubted his effect on Cyrus was even marginally close to Cyrus’ effect on him.

“See! There it is,” Amber remarked, breaking TJ out of his reverie as they pulled into their driveway. The moving truck she had just referenced was parked next to them, and he caught sight of their new neighbors walking into the house with boxes in their arms. He couldn’t quite get a clear look at them, but they seemed to be relatively normal. 

“I’m gonna go say hi. Wanna come?” Amber said.

“Yeah sure, just a minute,” TJ said, unbuckling his seatbelt and rubbing at his eyes.

“Fine. Don’t be so mopey when you meet them, though, alright?” Amber stared at him for a moment with her usual expression of concern, and proceeded to leave the car. He soon heard the sound of muted voices as she began to converse cheerfully with their new neighbors.

TJ leaned back in the driver’s seat, closing his eyes for a moment. His day had been especially shitty, and he was most certainly not in the mood to put on a happy face and talk with random people he didn’t give a damn about.

He took a deep breath. Just be nice, shake their hands, and leave, he told himself. You don’t have to put on a show.

He groaned, sitting up a bit, and caught sight of Amber standing in the neighbors’ driveway, her curly blonde hair cascading down her back. He craned his neck toward the passenger window, hoping to get a quick glance at the new neighbors before having to introduce himself.

From what he could see, it was a middle-aged woman with a younger looking, brown haired boy standing next to him. A brown haired boy who looked very, very familiar, with his thick eyebrows, and his sweet smile, and the little mole adorning his cheek. A brown haired boy who had carried TJ’s heart across the world with him, and who had now brought it back so that it was right next door. 

Holy fuck, TJ thought. 

Cyrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for such a short chapter! i promise future chapters will be longer... and not as angsty.
> 
> follow me on tumblr at @se-llamore!
> 
> thanks for reading,  
> sophie


	2. always in my head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im back already! i had a "snow" day today (because of the super cold weather) so i got lots of extra time to write. also, as promised, this chapter is much longer (4k words)! 
> 
> i didn't put a chapter summary bc i didn't want to spoil anything, since there are lots of unexpected moments in this chapter..
> 
> also, warning for swearing as usual. 
> 
> chapter title is based on the song by coldplay. 
> 
> enjoy!

Of course, TJ's first instinct was to duck. 

Here he was, crouched in a ball in his car while his former best friend slash crush slash new neighbor was standing a few yards away, speaking with his sister. And since Cyrus was speaking with his sister, that meant he knew that he was living next to TJ's house, and more importantly, that TJ was nearby. Maybe even in that car on the driveway.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," TJ whispered as he crawled his way under the driver's seat. He needed to a way out.

He heard noises nearby; it was Amber, saying goodbye to Cyrus and his mother. TJ ducked down as she passed his car and headed for the front door; she probably assumed he had gone inside already. After waiting a few moments to ensure she was gone, he slowly opened the car door and stepped out, keeping low so that he wouldn't be spotted. Once he had crouched-walked far enough, he stood up and made a beeline for his front door. His plan was now perfectly clear. He would sneak inside his house, hide in his room, and maybe never go outside again. It was foolproof. He just had to get to that damn door without anyone noticing.

"TJ?"

Shit.

He knew that voice. He hadn't heard it in years but he knew that damn voice and somehow the way Cyrus said his name now had the same effect on him as it did when he was thirteen years old. 

TJ took a deep breath, willed away the blush on his cheeks, and turned around.

"Cyrus!" he exclaimed. His tone and his smile were forced, and it all felt wrong. He never had to act fake in front of Cyrus. "How are you? How was Israel?"

"I'm great, thanks! And Israel was amazing." 

_Then why did you leave?_

"How about you? How's school going? You're a junior now, right?"

Had Cyrus really forgotten what grade he was in? The possibility of it stung. 

"I'm okay. You know, homework, basketball, the usual," TJ responded. It was a vague answer, but shockingly the most honest thing he had told anyone lately when they asked him how he was. Even now, he completely lost the ability to lie in Cyrus' presence. 

"Well that's...good to hear," Cyrus answered awkwardly. "But hey, isn't it so cool that we're neighbors now? I mean seriously, what are the odds?"

TJ was pretty sure the "odds" were that the universe simply wanted another excuse to laugh at him. 

"Yeah, seriously," TJ agreed, smiling at Cyrus. 

They were still about a couple yards apart, given that Cyrus had first called TJ's name from all the way across the driveway. A part of TJ wanted to come closer, wanted to close the gap that separated them. But it was as though the space between them was made of bricks: impossible to surpass, and impossible to see each other through.

"Well," Cyrus awkwardly cleared his throat. "It was nice seeing you again, TJ! It's been so long."

"Yeah, yeah, you too."

"Okay. I've got to finish unloading the truck now. Because, you know, furniture. See you around?"

"Yup," TJ answered as coolly as possible. As soon as Cyrus turned his back to him, however, TJ made a beeline for his front door.

"Shit," he whispered once he reached his bedroom, leaning against the door and covering his face with his hands. Cyrus was back, but TJ felt as though he were talking to a stranger.

His heart ached. The awkwardness between them was painfully obvious; it was like they had lost their compatibility. He wondered if it was because going to Israel had changed Cyrus, or because TJ had become so closed off since Cyrus left. He wondered if now, Cyrus would finally realize that he was much better off without someone like TJ. 

He noticed his blinds were open and stepped forward to look out the window. Of course, he had a perfect view of Cyrus' house. He caught a glance of Cyrus talking to his mom and laughing. 

He watched them for a few minutes. Cyrus' laugh. His smile. His voice. He had thought about him for so long, seen him in his dreams countless times, and now he was here. TJ really never thought he'd see him again. That didn't mean he had an excuse to get his hopes up, though. It wasn't like Cyrus' return meant that they could be together...like _that._

TJ suddenly shut the blinds with great force, eradicating all light from his bedroom. 

_He's a friend,_ he told himself as he flopped onto his bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. _If you can even call him that now. He's just an acquaintance, then. That's all he is._

TJ let out a heavy breath and closed his eyes, willing away the rapid beating of his heart. 

-

"TJ, get up!" He felt someone shaking his shoulder. "Jesus, TJ, you better not make us late or I'll kill you." 

TJ peeked open his eyes to meet Amber's angry face and a ray of sunlight seeping through the window. His breath felt foul, and he was still wearing his clothes from the day before. Definitely a great start to the morning. 

He groaned, sitting up in bed and shooing Amber out of his room. It was ten past seven. They had to leave in the next five minutes or they'd be late.

_Fantastic,_ TJ thought as he threw on a random shirt he found on the floor and kept the same pants on from the previous day. He stepped forward to turn off his bedside lamp, glancing out the window at the house next door. He noticed a car pulling out of the driveway and turning in the direction of Grant High.

Cyrus. Always so goddamn early. 

"TJ!" he heard Amber shout from the kitchen.

"Calm down! I'm coming," TJ yelled back, bounding down the stairs and grabbing his backpack and a muffin on his way out the door. They were chocolate chocolate chip flavored. His favorite - or at least it was after Cyrus had left.

"So," Amber said as they began the drive to school. "Cyrus is back."

TJ's grip on the steering wheel tightened ever so slightly. He is," he answered, trying to keep his voice as even as possible. 

Amber leaned back in her seat. "That must be nice, huh? I mean, you guys used to be best friends."

"Yeah," TJ responded. "Although honestly, it kind of feels like we're strangers now."

"Teej, that's perfectly normal," Amber said, patting his shoulder. "It's like seeing a friend at school after they've been away all summer. It's weird for like a second, but you jump back into your rhythm in no time."

It wasn't perfectly normal, though - because to TJ, Cyrus wasn't just a friend. And TJ felt crushingly guilty in the way that seeing him made his heart soar and his cheeks redden and his stomach fill with butterflies, because he knew that he didn't deserve to love someone like Cyrus. 

"Yeah, I guess so," he finally choked out as they pulled into the school parking lot.

Amber continued talking his ear off as they walked into school while TJ nodded along, subtly tuning her out. His sole focus today was to get through school and his basketball game without having to endure another painfully awkward moment between him and Cyrus.

Upon entering school, he realized that the bell had already rung, so the hallways had become mostly empty. With a breath of relief, he headed to his first period. He was late, but at least he didn't have to run into Cyrus and the rest of the GHC.

The hours dragged by painfully until TJ was practically counting down the minutes till lunchtime. It wasn't that he greatly enjoyed lunch; it was just better than the misery he endured when having to sit through multiple, completely useless classes.

When the bell finally rang, TJ followed the other students to the cafeteria, finding his usual place next to Amber and her terribly annoying friends. 

He sighed and pulled out his lunch box, prepared to spend the next thirty minutes silently scrolling through his phone while being helpless to overhear Amber's irritating conversations with her friends. 

"TJ," Amber said suddenly, causing him to look up in surprise; she hardly ever acknowledged his existence during school hours. "Don't you think should sit with Cyrus today? I mean, this is his first day back."

TJ glanced toward the direction of the GHC, with their new addition sitting at the table as if he'd never left. They were all chatting merrily, and he could hear their laughter from across the room. He suddenly wondered if Andi, Buffy, and Jonah also hadn't known that Cyrus was moving back to Shadyside - or if they did because Cyrus had kept in contact with them all this time. And if they had stayed in contact, he wondered why Cyrus didn't do the same for him. 

TJ turned back to his phone, simply ignoring Amber's remark. She sighed in a condescending manner and turned back to her friends, and TJ spent the next fifteen minutes of lunch just waiting for it to end. 

-

When the bell finally rang to dismiss seventh period, TJ's mood has improved considerably. He only had one period left, and thank God it was PE. After that he could go home and rest, and then eventually drag himself to his basketball game.

Upon entering the gym he headed toward the bleachers, where the students sat at the beginning of class so that the teacher could take attendance. He was one of the first to arrive, so he chose a random spot in the corner and rested his head in his hands as the rest of the class began noisily filing in. 

Suddenly he heard a loud sound as someone climbed up to where he was sitting, followed by an oh-so-familiar voice. 

"Hi."

He raised his head and found himself face to face with Cyrus.

What the fuck was he doing in a PE class?

TJ opened his mouth to ask him when they were interrupted by the teacher. 

"Five minute warmup, running laps around the gym. Come on, let's go!" 

The students begrudgingly stood up and made their way down to the gym floor. TJ began running and was surprised when Cyrus appeared beside him, already panting slightly.

“I’m fulfilling my gym requirement,” he explained, his breaths growing shorter. “Since, you know, I wasn’t here freshman and sophomore year. God, you’re hard to keep up with.”

TJ laughed quietly and slowed down his pace. They ran in silence for a bit, but TJ’s mind was a whirlwind. He had questions, so many questions for Cyrus; he just didn’t know where to start. Why was he back in Shadyside? Did something happen in Israel? Had he kept in contact with the GHC all this time and not him? Did he even think about TJ while he was gone? 

His spiraling thoughts were interrupted when the teacher ended the warmup and instructed everyone to line up so that they could be sorted into teams for soccer. Unfortunately, TJ and Cyrus were placed on different teams. TJ wasn’t completely disappointed, though; he could use the space, given how much talking with Cyrus messed with his brain.

Eventually, the teacher blew the whistle, signifying the end of class.

“Remember to come support our school’s athletic program by attending the varsity basketball game tonight!” the teacher shouted as students began filing out of the gym. “It starts at five PM! Please try to be there if you can!”

TJ followed the other students out of the gym, rolling his eyes. He really, really did not need more people coming to his game just to watch him embarrass himself. 

He suddenly realized he had forgotten to wait for Cyrus, who probably wanted them to walk out of school together. He turned around to look for him and caught sight of him talking to the gym teacher. 

_Typical,_ TJ thought amusingly as he left the gym. 

-

“Sorry I’m late,” Amber said as she slid into the passenger seat of TJ’s car. “Had some stupid emergency girls’ meeting in the bathroom. By the way, guess who’s in my math class now!”

“Oh, I wonder,” TJ responded sarcastically. He had spent the last fifteen minutes waiting for Amber so that they could leave school, and he was pretty pissed given that she interrupted his plans to head straight home and nap before his game.

“Okay, I’ll tell you,” she said excitedly, ignoring TJ’s obviously sarcastic tone. “It was Cyrus! Can you believe he’s taking eleventh grade math as a sophomore? I didn’t know he was that smart. I mean, when we were younger I just thought he just a giant dork.” 

TJ said nothing.

“Oh, come on, TJ!” Amber pressed. “Stop being so weird about Cyrus. Seriously, what is up with you?”

“Nothing, Amber. Just leave it,” TJ grunted. 

Surprisingly, she did. They drove the rest of the way home in silence, and when they arrived at the house, TJ headed straight to his room for a nap.

He woke up around ten past four and quickly began packing up his things for his basketball game. He headed down the stairs, grabbed his keys, and hurried toward the door.

“TJ!”

TJ turned around to see Amber standing at the top of the stairs.

“Good luck at your game.”

“Thanks,” he said, surprised by the interaction. He wasn’t used to Amber being this nice; but judging by the concerned expression on her face, it made sense why she was acting this way. Still, he really didn’t want her pity right now. He didn’t want anyone’s pity. He was fine.

“You’re late!” the coach yelled when TJ finally made it to the gym, red faced and panting. “Go warm up.”

“Yes, Coach,” TJ said flatly, joining his other teammates as they stretched.

They did a couple of drills until it was nearly 5 PM. People began filing into the gym, and TJ felt his stomach fill with dread.

With five minutes left until the start of the game, the coach called for the team to gather around. “Alright, here’s who is starting: Ben, Jack, Andrew, Daniel, and TJ.” 

TJ looked up in surprise upon hearing his name, making eye contact with his coach. As the rest of the team began dispersing, the coach grabbed his shoulder. “I’m giving you another chance, TJ,” he murmured. “Don’t waste it.”

TJ nodded and jogged onto the court, silently praying that he wouldn’t fuck this up like he did with everything else. He prayed that maybe this once, the universe would take his side.

Surprisingly, the game began quite uneventfully. TJ mostly ran up and down the court, following the ball as his teammates did the bulk of the work. He knew he could have gotten more involved, but his confidence was down, and he was afraid of messing up. He told himself he just needed a bit more time, and then he would make his big moves and maybe, maybe, start to get back to being the TJ who was once the captain of the Jefferson Middle School basketball team.

The opportunity arose soon enough. His team had the ball near the basket on the opponent's’ side of the court, and TJ was wide open. He waved his hands until his teammate spotted him and threw him the ball, which he caught swiftly.

This will be easy, he told himself as he ran toward the basket. It’s just a layup. You can do it. Don’t overthink it. Just take the shot.

He was about to do just that when the ball was suddenly snatched out of his hands. He simply stood, there, stunned, as he watched a boy from the opposing team dribble back to the other side of the court, his teammates chasing after him. He had been so wrapped up in his personal issues around making shots that he hadn’t even considered the fact that he still needed to defend himself against the other team. 

Fuck.

“Kippen! What are you doing? _Move!”_

The shouts of his coach jolted him out of his thoughts, and he ran to the other side of the court. By now, his teammates had moved on from his failure and were focused on defense. But TJ hadn’t. And he couldn’t get the fact that he had let them all down out of his head.

Finally, the buzzer rang to signify the end of the first quarter. TJ barely noticed, though; he had spent the time after his failed attempt to score in a stupor, absentmindedly running up and down the court. 

He trudged over to the sidelines, refraining from making eye contact with his coach. However, his attempts to avoid him were futile; his coach marched toward him, fuming.

“What is with you, Kippen?” he shouted. “Your one chance to score, and you let the ball go so easily! And then what, you just stand there after it gets taken from you? That’s not how a varsity player plays the game!”

“I’m sorry, Coach.”

“Yeah, you will be sorry, because you’re benched for the rest of the game. I really expected more from you, Kippen.” 

TJ nodded, his eyes turned shamefully toward the ground, and walked away before the coach could say any more. He rushed out of the gym and headed to the commons area, where he sat down on a bench and put his head in his hands. He should have been crying, or at least trying to will the tears away. But he just felt empty - and somehow, that was even worse.

“Why do you always look like you’re sleeping when I come say hi to you?” a nearby voice said lightly.

TJ looked up slowly.

Of course.

“What are you doing here, Cyrus?”

“I came to see the game.”

TJ knitted his eyebrows. “I didn’t ask you to come to my game.”

“I know.” His eyes were kind and understanding - almost shining. TJ was suddenly brought back to a time many years ago, a time when Cyrus sat with him in the break room next to the gym and told him that it was okay to have a learning disability. TJ realized that Cyrus was wearing the same look now that he had that day in middle school. He remembered it so well because it was a moment that made him realize he was free falling for the most wonderful boy - a boy who wholeheartedly believed that there was nothing wrong with him. He wondered if Cyrus would tell him the same thing now, after seeing how completely, truly broken he was. So broken that he couldn’t even do the one thing he was good at: basketball.

“TJ,” Cyrus said softly, and his voice alone brought TJ out of the hellish confines of his mind. He knew what that tone meant. Cyrus was asking him to talk, to trust him enough to confide in him.

And TJ did. Of course, TJ did.

“I used to be good at basketball,” TJ began. “You probably know that already. But lately, I’ve just... I don’t know. I’ve lost my spark. I can’t do it right anymore. I avoid as much action as I possibly can, and anytime I do get action I freeze up and let everybody down.”

He looked toward Cyrus, who nodded for him to go on.

“The coach keeps telling me he’s seen me play well before, and that he put me on varsity because he knows I can do it again. And a small part of me hoped so, too. But after tonight, I realized that whoever the TJ was who could actually play basketball is now gone. And it’s me who’s left. Me, a failure.”

He choked on his words a bit, realizing that a lump had formed in his throat. Right now he was closer to crying than he had been in a long, long time, and somehow, that made him feel a little bit better.

“Teej,” Cyrus said, leaning toward him. The nickname left him breathless. He hadn’t heard Cyrus use it since he last saw him in Shadyside. “You’re not a failure. You’re not.”

“But you don’t know that. You haven’t - “

“I know. I know I’ve been gone, and that I missed a lot. But that doesn’t mean I don’t know you. I do. I always will. You were once my best friend, TJ.”

_Once._ The truth behind the word stung.

“And maybe we haven’t seen each other in a few years, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less brave, determined, and good hearted as you were back then. And whatever this is, you’ll get through it. I’ve seen you deal with a lot worse.”

“Thank you,” TJ whispered, his voice brimming with emotion.

“Of course.” 

They were so close now, and TJ was captivated by Cyrus’ shining brown eyes. He wanted to do something. Touch him. Hug him, maybe. Hold him tight and make up for all the years they spent apart from each other. But he remembered the last time Cyrus comforted him during a basketball game, remembered that when he told him how helpful he had been, Cyrus gave him a huge grin that made everything okay again. So maybe, TJ could just go for getting that smile again, and not take the risk of venturing into the unknown.

“You really helped me,” TJ said in a quiet voice.

Cyrus’ lips widened into a blinding smile, one of the many beautiful things about him that TJ had fallen for. “You remember that,” he whispered back.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

And then they were back to just staring at each other. Just staring. And TJ’s mind was spurring. He was thinking that maybe he should just risk it all, say fuck it and venture into the unknown. But then the gym door opened loudly, following a random woman trying to calm her screaming kid. Cyrus retreated from TJ’s personal space, and the moment was over.

“Well,” Cyrus cleared his throat, speaking at a regular volume again. “My mom’s probably waiting for me outside, since she’s expecting me to leave early. I should get going.”

“Yup,” TJ supplied awkwardly. Suddenly, they were back to being strangers again. He hated it.

“Well, I’ll see you at school, then,” said Cyrus, grabbing his bag and heading toward the door.

“See you at school.” TJ turned back around, sighing.

“Wait!”

TJ looked back at him in confusion. Cyrus was walking toward him again. “My mom’s first day at her new job starts tomorrow morning. So, uh, I was wondering if maybe I could get a ride to school? It’s not too out of the way, since we’re neighbors and everything.”

“Oh, um, sure!” TJ nodded, trying to contain his excitement. 

“Yeah? Okay, great! What time should I be ready?”

“Uh, seven?” He made it up on the spot. 

Cyrus laughed. “Okay, early bird. See you then.”

“Yeah, see you!” TJ called after him. Once he was gone, TJ squeezed his eyes shut, slapping his forehead

_Seven fucking o’clock? Really, TJ?_ he thought. That was fifteen minutes before the time he aimed to leave, and even then he was usually late.

Suddenly, the buzzer sounded to signify the start of the second quarter, and TJ began heading back into the gym, prepared to sit on the bench for the rest of the game. For some reason, though, he didn’t dread it as much as usual. Ignoring his coach’s death glare, he took a seat, daydreaming about the next day. 

_You’re just giving Cyrus a ride to school,_ he tried to tell himself. _It’s what any good neighbor would do. Nothing special._

Still, he had a feeling, deep inside, that something more would come out of this. That his and Cyrus’ storyline wasn’t over just yet.

He couldn’t wait for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy broke the fourth wall a lil at the end there
> 
> anywayss hoped that was good. the story is really starting to pick up now. i am vvvv excited for future chapters...
> 
> once again, my tumblr is @se-llamore so shoot me an ask about the fic or send in a prompt if you want. im up for anything! 
> 
> sophie


End file.
